There’s a new study* that suggests there are neutral-to-positive academic effects of 4-day school weeks on children. Hmmmm…

This is all about cost-cutting. Districts that reduce to a 4-day school week save money on everything from utilities to busing costs. I get it. Schools are strapped and it’s all good for budgets and balance sheets, but I’m skeptical about the effects on families, work-life, and children over the long term. Shorter weeks mean more in-school hours for the days kids are in school and no school one day per week. So what does that do to family time and to working parents who are struggling to fit everything into the day?

I was chatting with a friend the other day. He works full time and splits the day with his wife so they can care for their young daughter. She leaves early to get to work and put in a full day while he shares the morning routine with his daughter – waking up, doing breakfast, taking her to school. His wife picks their daughter up from school. My friend arrives home from his later-start/later-ending day at work by about 7pm when they have a late family dinner together. His daughter is in bed by 8pm since she has a busy schedule of sports and academics. This means that on week-days, they get one hour a day for family time. And after cleaning up from dinner, my friend and his wife have just a bit of time together and then they fall into bed so they can wake up and do it all over again the next day. It’s tricky to fit it all in…and they are lucky since they enjoy the luxury of being a two-parent family with the privileges of relative wealth since they both work full time at good jobs.

So for the single parent or for the parents with less flexibility in their jobs**, what would life be like with a 4-day school schedule? And what happens to the children on that day they don’t have school at all? Are they on their own as latchkey kids watching TV or playing video games or doing who-knows-what with no supervision?

In the research I did for my book, Bring Work to Life by Bringing Life to Work: A Guide for Leaders and Organizations (2014), I found that the greatest satisfaction and most positive family outcomes were enjoyed by the families that had one parent who was a teacher. This was because the child(ren) and at least one parent had a schedule that was perfectly synced. This made everything easier in terms of logistics, and most importantly in terms of spending time together.

I’m not sure what the right answers are, but I know they’re complex. Decisions about changing school weeks have tons of implications from academics to children’s social time with friends to logistical challenges for parents and the time families are able to spend together.

I typically resist criticizing unless I have a better solution to recommend…and here, unfortunately I don’t have a suggestion to put forward…only a plea that when we make decisions as communities we consider the complex and far-reaching implications not just for budgets, but also for parents, children, families.

*Here’s a link to the study.

**Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich (2011) is a must-read on this topic.